Woman Wonders Why Rescue Dog Struggles To Learn Commands—Then Realizes

An American woman living in Brazil is getting a boost in her language skills—thanks to her dog.

Leigh Stephens, 26, a graphic designer from Kansas, USA, now lives in São Paulo, after meeting her now-husband, Gabriel Santos, and moving to be with him in 2023.

Stephens is still getting to grips with learning a new language, but she found an unexpected help with her Portuguese skills—when the couple adopted a dog.

"We'd been wanting a dog for a while, and one day we were walking past the park near our house when we stumbled on an adoption fair. We saw him and it just felt right, so we brought him home," Stephens told Newsweek.

She described the dog, who they have named Billie, as "what Brazilians often call a 'caramelo,' which is a common street dog breed here, usually with that signature caramel color.

"They're kind of a national symbol and beloved by a lot of people here."

After bringing Billie, two, home, Stephens got to work on training him with basic commands, but "quickly noticed he just wasn't responding."

A 2022 study published in Applied Animal Behavior Science found that dog owners report their dogs responding to between 15 and 215 words, generally encompassing three distinct types: general words, commands, and nouns.

A dog's breed, whether it was a working dog, and how quickly it picked up words, contributed to the number of words it responded to.

For Stephens, she was initially baffled, but eventually had a lightbulb moment, and asked her husband how to say phrases like "sit," or "paw"—and "sure enough, when I said it in Portuguese, he'd get it right away.

"It turns out he already knew some commands from life at the shelter and I've had to catch up!"

In a video to Stephens' TikTok account, @leighabroad, and also shared to her Instagram @leigh.abroad, Stephens showed off Billie's obedience skills-—and her own growing language skills.

Posted on July 8, and already viewed close to one million times, it showed Stephens and Billie hanging out together in front of the camera, as she asked him to sit, shake the paw, if he was hungry and whether he wanted to go outside in English.

Billie took no notice whatsoever, simply leaning against his owner for cuddles as she stroked his back.

Then, however, she asked in Portuguese if he was hungry—and his reaction was immediate, as he jumped up at her while licking his lips. When she asked in Portuguese if he wanted to go outside, he leaped off her and ran towards the door, his tail wagging furiously.

"I wonder if he is confused all day when I'm talking in English," she said with a laughing emoji in the caption.

Stephens told Newsweek that she does most of the training exercises with Billie, "so I had to start learning the phrases in Portuguese just to communicate with him.

"It's been a huge—and unexpected—help in my own language-learning journey because now I speak mostly Portuguese at home, thanks to him.

"It's kind of hilarious that I learned dog commands before I learned basic future tense verbs or how to schedule a doctor's appointment!"

TikTok users loved the clip, one writing: "The fact that we can learn so much just by giving them love," as another laughed at "his face when you talked in English."

"It's crazy what they understand," another wrote. "My dogs are bilingual because we speak English and French on the regular. It's funny."

And one said sweetly: "It just shows that all we need is a little understanding to be our true selves."

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